Anyone want to see Goran live at this years Wimbledon?
It would be great wouldnt it - to travel to Wimbledon and see our hero live for possibly the last time in his career?
As we all come from different corners of Europe (world) we could go seperately to london - and then join up together at the All England Club and stand together as a joint army of Goran-fans!

London is not the cheapest of citys to stay.
But you should be able to find a decent hotel at 40 pounds a night. Prices are usually the same for both double and single rooms. So if you stay together its half the price per person.

I went to London 2 weeks ago - and we found a hotell at [url=http://"http://www.hotel-assist.com]www.hotel-assist.com[/url].
At this web-site you can chat with agents and make hotel-reservations via your chat-agent and your e-mail. Very efficient.

But as far as tickets are concerned, the only way to get them if you didn't get any in the annual draw, is to queue up in person the night before. You used to be able to get decent tickets by turning up at around 6am on the day of play, but it has become much more popular in the last few years, and there are less tickets on sale, so you now need to camp out the night before to stand any chance of getting Centre Court.

Of course, he might not be on Centre, but it would horrible to be in the queue and only manage to get Court 1 etc, only to find he is on Centre.

So - here is my mini-guide to queuing for Wimbledon.

-Turn up about 4pm the day before, with your tent and all members of your party, as you are now issued with a numbered ticket to show your place in the queue, to avoid queue jumping. There are two queues going in opposite directions from the main gate. One queue is all pavement, the other is pavement for about 500yards then it turns into Wimbledon Park (or Common, I can never remember) so you might get to pitch your tent on grass if you are very lucky!
-Everyone sits around chatting etc til about 9pm when people start setting up their tents. You can get delivery pizza and Chinese food delivered right to your tent, or you can go into Wimbledon or Southfields to buy food and drink.
-There are public toilets/washing facilities along the road for both queues and in the park.
- Try to get a good night's sleep (impossible! - too much noise, and you will be too excited!)
- Around 6am the stewards start coming around waking everyone up. You get about an hour to pack up your tent etc and grab some breakfast before the queue starts to be moved along towards the main gate. You have to have either packed all your stuff away in your car and moved the car either to public parking on the street, or into the official car parks (c Â£15 per day), or if you are on foot, you keep it all with you and put it in "Left Luggage" which is on the way along the queue.
-The queue is pushed up towards the main gate by about 8, then it's a waiting game.
-While you are in the queue (sometimes while still in your tent) they come around selling newspapers. It's a good idea to get one as you can then get the order of play and make an informed decision as to which court you will want tickets for.
-The stewards come around with wristbands at about 9am - these are what determine what tickets you get. The closer to the front of the queue you are, the higher the chance of Centre Court tickets. Obviously the further back you are, the more chance there is that by the time they reach you they will only have wristbands for Court 1, 2 or ground passes left. (Note - the stewards don't actually have the tickets, just a wristband that tells the ticket office when you get there what court you are entitled to).
- The main gates usually open at around 10. The queue starts to move through the gates, your bags are searched and you reach a ticket booth. They check your wristband to see what court you have asked for, then you get to pick your tickets (Note - CASH ONLY). Not all ticket booths have tickets for every section of your chosen court, but we've always managed to get about 4th row back in whichever stand we want.
- Then you're in!Play starts on the outside courts at 11, and the show courts at either 12 or 1 depending on which day you are there so until then, you just mooch around the shops or cafes etc. If you know there is a match you want to see on an outside court, then you should head there as soon as you get in to make sure you get a seat. Only Centre and no 1 courts have allocated seating, everything else is a free-for-all. And be warned, if you leave your seat during a match (ie to go to the bathroom), the stewards will give your seat to someone who is waiting. You can't leave stuff on a seat and try to reserve it.
- AND ENJOY YOUR DAY AT WIMBLEDON.

It's great but you really have to be prepared to slum it for the night. It's not comfortable, there are no mod cons, and there is always the chance that you won't get the tickets you want, or it will rain etc etc etc.

I wouldnt have found a better description anywhere on the internet.
I knew I'd have to que to get tickets. But I didnt actually know that I had to turn up the night before. And all the rest of your information; really nice to know!
Do u live in London?
Where exactly are the courts? Do u go there by tube? (Ive been to London several times, but never during Wimbledon, so I havent had the chance to see the facilities.)

In case you're unable to que for tickets; how are the chanches of getting tickets on the black market? Ive bought on the black market some of the times Ive been to football-matches - and as long as the match isnt too big a game, its usually quite simple to buy on the black market.
Does the same go at Wimbledon? In that case; what kind of prices are we talking? (Day 1 through day 6)

Glad you found the info useful. Once I'd started typing I realised just how much stuff there is to know.
I don't live in London - Brighton, on the South Coast. I always drive up to Wimbledon so that I have my car to pack my tent away into. But it is really easy on public transport - you can get the overland train to Wimbledon and walk, or the tube to Wimbledon or Southfields (District Line from Victoria, but make sure you get the right one as some trains go to other final destinations). The All England Club is signposted from both stations. Be warned - it is a bit of a slog from Wimbledon main station (uphill). Once you get towards the queue you will see stewards who can direct you to the end.

As far as tickets are concerned it's much harder than it used to be to get hold of them any other way. They were being sold on at such ridiculously high prices in the last few years, that the tickets which are allocated in the main draw are now clearly marked that they are only for use by the original purchaser, and you agree to not sell them on when you buy them. They are all bar-coded, and the stewards at the club have scanning machines which show the name of the purchaser when they scan the ticket. You can then be asked to show ID to prove that you or the person with you is the person who bought them! All very technological. I gather that occasionally there are people who wander along the queue or hang around Wimbledon station muttering that they have tickets for sale, but you end up disappearing down an alley with them to pay them, you can't be sure you are not buying a forged ticket, and you both run the risk of being caught. I just checked ebay and there are 5 pairs of tickets on sale for 23 June Centre Court (doesn't say which seats so of course could be right at the back) - lowest bid so far is Â£155 for the pair - way over the face value. Some ticket agencies have tennis/hotel packages on sale but the tickets end up being anything up to about 4 times the face value.
The prices on the gate are about Â£30-35 for centre court, Â£28 for Court 1 etc (I think, though I can't remember exactly from last year). They stay fairly constant for the first few days. And if I remember rightly, they cut the number of tickets on sale on the gate on the middle Saturday right down last year and allocated almost all of them in the main draw.
Anyway, camping out can be fun especially with a couple of mates, a case of beer and a delivery pizza!

Thanks Emma for all the explination, sounds great! I will look next week if I can also have tickets from french federation, who knows? it can work! :D but otherwise, it can be cool to wait for tickets with beers, pizza and all Goran's Fans :)

First of all:
I'm from Norway (Oslo). Not the biggest tennis-nation of course. Actually I'm pretty sure Im the biggest Goran-fan in Norway! :-)

I figured it would be difficult to buy tickets on the black market. And if youre in for a fake ticket as well - or worse; getting caught for illegal purchasing, it's def not worth it!
I'll be better of with a few beers, a pizza and a tent. Of course I wont have a car to pack away my things - but maybe Emma could help me in that matter:-)

Anyway; lets all keep in touch; Im not sure any of mye friends are willing to pay high expenses on Wimbledon, so it would be great to meet some other Goran fans if I end up going there alone!

Yeah, you guys should all definately come over and give Goran a HUGE send off :). Its true, the camping isnt exactly that comfortable, especially as its on the pavement (!), but it is really good fun, and you get to meet people from all over the world. I would definately recommend it! Just make sure you have more than one spare change of clothes for the next day. Its not uncommon to get changed in the morning, and then have a HUGE downpour, and end up being wet all day. Its all part of the wimbledon experience though!